Man banned for showing dog with Saudi dress

Saudi authorities stopped a US university professor in the middle of his lecture and cancelled the event after he showed a picture of a dog wearing the traditional Saudi head gear.

Joseph Williams, an environment expert at a university in the US state of Ohio, said he was surprised when he was told by the organizers of his lecture at a university in the western town of Taif to immediately stop his lecture and leave the campus.

The professor was lecturing at Taif university about the impact of climatic changes on desert animals in Saudi Arabia when he showed a picture of a dog living in the United States.

“He then showed a dog living in Saudi Arabia…the picture was for a dog wearing Shammagh (Saudi headgear)…this picture quickly triggered protests from the audience and many of them left the lecture hall,” Sharq newspaper said on Thursday.

“Most of them considered the picture as an insult to the Saudi national identity…the university management then told the professor to stop the lecture and leave the campus and the Kingdom.”

The paper quoted Dr Ibrahim Arif, an environment professor at the Taif university, as saying Williams apologized twice to the university and the audience but that he had to be stopped.

“Williams said he had got that picture from a Saudi professor and that it is already on the internet….he also said he was surprised by the reaction of the audience to the picture since it is only a picture.”

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